


A Speaker, A Keeper

by orro



Category: Zombies Run!
Genre: Gen, Prisoner of War, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-01
Updated: 2013-08-31
Packaged: 2017-12-25 06:18:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/949654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orro/pseuds/orro
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>[SPOILERS FOR UP TO S2M7]</p>
<p>Summary: Abel was burning. Sam could smell it. Not just the smoke but the fire itself as it spread and devoured the township. His mind was still trying to wrap around Sara’s words. Zombies working together. Carrying a rocket launcher. It wasn’t possible. </p>
<p>And yet Abel burned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Speaker, A Keeper

  
  


Abel was burning. Sam could smell it. Not just the smoke but the fire itself as it spread and devoured the township. His mind was still trying to wrap around Sara’s words. Zombies working together. Carrying a rocket launcher. It wasn’t possible.

 

And yet Abel burned.

 

He could hear people screaming and he knew that the walls had been breached. Breached. This should not be his life. This shouldn’t have been any of their lives. It was the stuff of stories, but it was the bad part, the part where you could set the book down and come back to later, or skip ahead to the end to see who made it.

 

The fire hadn’t reached the comms shack yet though. Probably. It didn’t matter anyway; he had a job to do. He started running through the evacuation orders. Clear out the hospital. Call out to the runners and pray they could hear him, so he could let them know what was going on. As if he knew.

 

Get the children out. Get everyone out. Evacuate. Leave. Get away from Abel, because it wasn’t safe anymore, it was on fire and it was going to be a beacon for every zombie in the area.

 

The cameras were down but the scanners still worked.

 

“Five and Eight, if you’re still there, there’s a pack headed your way! You need to get out of there now!”

 

Sam tried to keep the scanners in his view as he looked for something to defend himself with. A bat, a piece of pipe, something!, because he could hear zombies now, hear people screaming as they were dragged down and eaten alive. He could hear the nightmarish groans and the sick sound of flesh being torn and devoured. He could hear the fire crackling and eating up their home.

 

Zombies or fire, pick your favorite way to die.

 

Sam could feel the fire now, and it was here, it was in his precious comms shack. He could fight a zombie off; he couldn’t fight off a fire. Just one more transmission. If he could just save one of his runners it would be worth it.

 

“Seven, can you hear me? You need to keep running. All of you. Don’t come back to Abel. The wall is down, there are zombies here, they’re inside the township-”

 

He had to get out but he could see his runners still out there, and they were blind without him at the helm. If they could even hear him of course. They had to be able to hear him. They just had to. He could keep them safe. He could make sure they were okay at least.

 

Sam heard something snap, and he looked up to see the roof come crumbling down on top of him.

 

* * *

 

 

It hurt when he tried to breathe.

 

There was a bright light and he laughed a little at that. Always thought that one was a myth. He screwed his eyes shut tighter and tried to avoid it.

 

No way was he going to die today. At least he wasn’t going to walk straight into it like a dolt.

 

* * *

 

 

There were noises, familiar ones, like when he would keep Maxine company in the hospital. It was a certain kind of sound. Supplies being shifted around, the bleached antiseptic smell that was ever present, people coughing and chatting in low tones; hospital sounds.

 

It wasn’t Abel’s hospital though. Sam knew that for a fact now. Abel’s hospital was a piddly little thing, all tents and cloth, and hapdashadly thrown together. This place had stone walls, there were cots, and it wasn’t Abel. He’d been awake for a half hour which he knew because there was an actual clock on the wall. Definitely not Abel.

 

Sam bit his lip and started to get up, throwing the too bleached sheets off and ignoring the squeak the bed made at his every movement. His arm was in a sling, and he moved slowly to avoid jarring it. But when he breathed in too deeply his chest hurt, and all he wanted to do was lie back down.

 

He eyed the other people in the room; none of them seemed to even notice him. Probably because he was a stranger. Seriously, where the hell was he? None of the people looked remotely familiar. He took a careful breath and managed to get off the bed. The stone floor was freezing to his bare feet (enough that it almost made him gasp) as he walked to the door. No one bothered with him as he struggled with the door.

 

Sam poked his head out and was surprised to see a lot of people. He hadn’t been able to hear anyone clearly from on the inside of the room. He stayed still for a moment, wondering where he was and what was happening, but before he could leave the room someone came up to him.

 

“You need to lie back down,” the man said

 

Sam blinked at him. The man was a soldier, and he was outfitted accordingly. Abel didn’t have soldiers though. The only place he could think of was either New Canton or Mullins. But Mullins hadn’t sent anyone out since the rocket launcher attack on the helicopter and New Canton doing something to help Abel, well, that was a laugh and a half.

 

“Doctor’s orders,” the man said and gestured for him to move back.

 

Sam gaped at him but stepped back, because the man looked like he’d physically push him back if he didn’t move back. When the door shut, Sam stared at it, utterly confused. He turned to go lie back down, too out of it to notice the room’s other occupants watching him warily.

 

‘Not my doctor,’ Sam thought, sure of that one thing at least.

 

* * *

 

 

The doctor’s name was Balden. Maybe Balder. Sam wasn’t sure anymore. Though he probably should have been considering how nice the man was to him. The first time he’d come around he’d just told him what had happened. Something about how he’d been lucky, that when the comms shack had fallen on top of him it had only broken his arm, though without x-rays they wouldn’t be one hundred percent sure about it. And even with an injured arm the rest of him was okay. Maybe some bruised ribs but those would heal. Really, it was borderline miraculous, especially that the New Cantons runners had been able to find him before zombies had.

 

Sam couldn’t find it in him to be overjoyed though he did try to smile for Balden. He was in New Canton, the people who had tried to raid Abel, and while he was pretty sure they weren’t responsible for the zombie attack, it was kind of hard to forget the first. And maybe if they hadn’t been so focused on that they might have been able to prepare better.

 

Probably not, it was zombies carrying rocket launchers, there was no goddamn manual for that. No protocol because it was considered impossible. But maybe more of them could have survived. Sam hadn’t seen or heard of others. He clenched his fist. He couldn’t be the only survivor. He wasn’t that lucky.

 

Except he might have been. He hadn’t seen anyone else from Abel, hadn’t heard from them either, and when he asked Balder, the man hadn’t been able to answer him.

 

Though, Sam looked around the small empty room, considering he was in a _dungeon_ now, he suspected it was less a matter of what anyone knew versus what anyone would tell him.

 

He sighed and ran his hand through his hair, gripping it as if that could anchor him. This was such a mess. He probably would have been better running and taking his chances with the zombies out in the wild. He did it once, it wasn’t impossible that he could have done it again.

 

New Canton may have been a fortress but it wasn’t safe here, especially not for him. They could do what they liked with him. Abel was gone, and he was just a radio operator; no one was going to risk anything for him. The Major would see Abel destroyed, and even if she did find out that he was alive, if New Canton even let it out that he was alive, he wouldn’t blame her for not trying to broker an agreement for him. But New Canton probably wouldn’t tell anyone they have an Abel resident. Secretive bastards.

 

The doctor had been pissed off though when he’d been told that Sam would have to be moved. Something about security risks but Sam hadn’t really thought about it too hard. A mistake on his part, but then, it wasn’t like he could have done anything about it either.

 

So maybe not everyone in New Canton was a total tool. Except he was in a _dungeon_ and he didn’t really feel like having charitable thoughts towards his _captors_. Good god, it was like a bloody madhouse.

 

* * *

 

 

When the door opened, Sam was surprised that it wasn’t a soldier. That was the only kind of person who he’s had any contact with in the past day or so. It wasn’t even the same soldier all the time. Not that any of them have talked to him anyway. His basic questions were met with one syllable word answers and the rest of his questions were just straight up ignored.

 

This guy was just creepy. Something about the way he moved, how he brought in a chair with him and sat down it in, away from Sam. The man didn’t seem to have another chair for Sam, seemingly content to letting him sit on the cold stone floor. Sam was probably being ridiculous trying to read into that and paranoid, but then again, dungeon.

 

“Hello. My name is Esteban Sosa. You may call me Esteban.”

 

Okay, yeah, this guy was weird.

 

“Sam Yao,” Sam says reluctantly. He was so confused, and much as he wanted answers, he got the distinct feeling that he wasn’t going to get them from this guy. He wasn’t quite sure what the correct way to go about this is and decided for the truth. Just not the whole truth.

 

“Sam, welcome to New Canton.” Esteban smiled and Sam wanted to run out the room and never look back. Nice to see that New Canton really was as freaky as he thought. Always nice to be proven right. “I’m sure you’re wondering what has been happening so allow me to explain.”

 

“I’m in a dungeon, so yeah, a little explanation might be nice,” Sam said, unable to help himself. His big mouth was so going to get him into trouble one of these days. But fucking dungeon. He was going to be a little prat if he wanted to be.

 

Esteban’s smile doesn’t falter. “Abel Township has been blown up by some sort of attack. We’re merely trying to keep from a panic arising here; you’re hardly a prisoner. This is for your own safety. Someone wanted Abel out of the picture; do you think they’d like knowing they missed someone, and wouldn’t want to finish the job?”

 

Sam gulped, because yeah, he can imagine that perfectly well. He shifted around and looked up at Esteban.

 

“So they’re really all gone,” he whispered.

 

“I am afraid so. You were the only one our search team found. We’ve been trying to send people back but there are quite a lot of zombies still around. Abel won’t be a safe area for a while, and being so close to New Canton, you can imagine the mayhem it is causing.” Esteban paused for a moment and Sam butted in.

 

“I had runners out there. They might have made it out. They’re tough, and smart, I’m sure some of them could have survived it.”

 

“Runners,” Esteban repeated slowly.

 

Sam nodded. “They were thinning out the hoard for us. I-I don’t know if they could hear me at the end there, all our equipment was scrambled-” Sam froze but Esteban’s face was carefully blank. Sam shouldn’t have been telling them anything. New Canton was the one they had been suspecting of messing with their equipment.

 

“Please, there’s no need to be suspicious.” Esteban smiled, too sharp to really be trusted. He shook his head sadly as if he had been wounded by Sam’s distrust. “What happened to your township is a tragedy. Everyone here truly believes that. New Canton had nothing to do with it; I can promise you that much, Sam.”

 

Sam didn’t say anything. Sure, maybe they hadn’t sent the hoard after them, but they had been planning a raid. He had watched the New Canton runners coming with bolt cutters. There were only so many uses people had for those.

 

Esteban sighed, and though they were strangers, even Sam could tell it was totally fake. He leaned forward in his chair.

 

“We only want to find out what happened. Your cooperation would be very much appreciated, Sam.”

 

“Are you...is that some sort of threat?” Sam couldn’t help looking at him in disgust.

 

“Not at all. I am merely stating facts. It was at great risk that we sent out our runners to search for survivors. There were many zombies, and with the township fallen, the number is only increasing. We were all saddened that you were the only one we found.” Esteban’s smile widened a hair. “Anything you can tell us about what actually transpired on that awful day would be greatly appreciated, Sam.

 

Sam set his jaw.

 

“I need to know if my runners made it.”

 

Esteban raised an eyebrow at him. Sam didn’t look away.

 

There came a knock at the door and Esteban stood up, that same smile still in place. “It looks like something has come up. I’ll be back as soon as I’m available. You have nothing to fear from us here at New Canton, Sam.”

 

Sam watched him leave and with a sigh let go of all of the tension that had sprung up while in Esteban’s presence. He leaned his head against the hard wall, hoping fervently that this was all just a nightmare. It had to be.

 

Abel hadn’t been attacked by rocket launcher carrying zombies working in formation. His home in the apocalypse hadn’t been burned to the ground. He wasn’t being held prisoner by their enemies in a dungeon. His friends weren’t all dead.

 

Sam covered his eyes with his hand and definitely did not try and fail to keep from crying.


End file.
